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It was both the Awards Night and the Closing Night of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, NewFest. After the all the awards were presented and the thank you’s uttered, the lights dimmed and soon the audience was watching rowers talk about training, sex, and the regatta. Some things never change, right? By the end of the movie, guys were naked, boats were broken, and the queerstroke (queerschlag) team had won the regatta. Such a cool movie!
As the audience filed out of the movie theater, 8 rowers were lined up, with hands-on some crisp, sharp Crew New York brochures wrapped with a GLRF sleeve, and issues of Rowing News. As the rowers called out, “Would you like to row?” and “Rowing in New York City,” all 80 of the brochures were snapped up. The crowd swarmed to Boggart’s for some drinks and chat, and to talk about the movie’s stroke technique.
The 1st World Outgames organising committee has announced the appointments for the 1st World Outgames Regatta Committee. Ms. Guylaine Bernier of Rowing Canada will assume the role of president of the Regatta Committee. She will have the support of a solid team to assist her: Mr. Richard Cabana from the Lachine Rowing Club and the Association Québécoise d’Aviron (Québec Rowing Association), Mr. Karol Sauvé, Rowing Canada national coach and Olympic Basin Events Coordinator, as well as Mr. Gregory Dalmasso and Mr. Philippe Colas from Club d’Aviron Odawagan. Additionally, Ms. Micheline Landry, Mr. Marco Veilleux and Mr. Michel Germain, will serve on the committee.
They have all been actively involved in numerous rowing events. The regatta committee is looking forward to welcoming rowers and crews from around the world, and is hard at work to ensure top-quality, unforgettable competitions at the Olympic Basin, site of rowing competitions during the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal.
GLRF became the latest country to join the GLRF worldwide community when a university rower registered from the main city of Zagreb.
Although Croatia is a small country, with a population of only 4.5 million, rowing is a very popular sport. Clubs abound in the city and countryside. Croatian rowers have medaled in the Olympics, including the recent silver for Siniša and Nikša Skelin (2-) in Athens. Hopefully, this first registration will open the door for more rowers to come forward and become a visible part of the global community.
A rower from Gent became the first Belgian to join the GLRF global community. The registration pushed the GLRF country county to 16, and expands the GLRF presence in western Europe. Belgium has a strong tradition of rowing, with influences from Germany, France, and Holland. The Montreal World Outgames reported a surge in registrations from Belgium for the 2006 event at the recent Belgian Pride Week. The increased interest in the event may induce other rowers to join GLRF.
The Terralba rowing camp in Tuscany will be the site of the first GLRF Italian Scullers Clinic. The owners of the camp had read about the Craftsbury clinic and contacted GLRF to ask if they could develop a similar event. The event brings a global reach to the GLRF marketing campaign, HitTheWater!2005. Rowers can learn more about the weekend clinic, scheduled for 22 - 25 Sep 2005, by clicking through to the GLRF web page Destinazione Italia.
The full press release can be reviewed here: GLRFmedia_DestinazioneItalia.pdf
[Edit: due to a lack of registrations, the clinic had to be cancelled but the idea was certainly of interest to many members.]
Russia became the 15th country to join the GLRF global community when an elite rower from Moscow registered. This groundbreaking registration will pave the way for other rowers to discover and develop a shared community in Russia. Additionally, the existence of a Russian rower’s membership in GLRF will encourage and promote interest in rowing in the Russian gay and lesbian community as well.
GLRF member @DPH2002 visited Buenos Aires and the Tigre Region in April 2005. Over a one-week period, he took in the sights and tastes of a country that knows how to do many things right: style, rowing, and meat.
Shop ‘til you drop in Buenos Aires for some amazing styled clothes and prices that will keep you jabbering endlessly. If you have never tasted Argentine beef, you are in for a treat.
If you have never seen the rowing clubs of the Tigre region, your mouths will fall open in awe. There are huge number of clubs, most of which are organized along country names, like Germany, Switzerland, Italy, etc. They row both the larger c-boats (thus the rail tracks to cart the boats to the water), and racing boats.
The famous Cucchietti boats are built in the Tigre area. We visited Jorge Cucchietti’s boat manufacturing facility, and his son was kind enough to lend us his personal single for a quick row out of the Buenos Aires Rowing Club.
http://www.glrf.info/gotchagallery/data/media/17/Cucchettit_DosinMarcos6.jpg
If you have never thought about a Cucchietti boat, you should! Their unique hull design and super lite construction makes them the secret weapon in the racing world.
Three cities submitted bids to the Federation of Gay Games for the opportunity to host the 2010 Gay Games: Cologne, Paris, and Johannesburg. None of the bids listed rowing as one of the featured sports. Each bid follows a standard request-for-proposal protocol that provides certain standards and requirements. The bids require both a sports and cultural programme. The sports programme consists of 22 mandated, core sports, and up to 8 additional sports that bidders can select from a qualified list of sports. Rowing is not one of the core sports. It is one of the listed additional sports.
The Cologne bid is perplexing because the city has a FISA Class A rowing stadium that hosted the World Masters in 1998. The GLRF FGG delegate visited the Fuehlinger See rowing facility during the November 2004 annual meeting of the Federation of Gay Games. It is a top-notch facility with large return lanes and side lagoons for warm up and practice. To add insult to injury, several of the sports events in the bid will be held at the Fuehlinger See facility: Road Races, Triathlon, Inline-Skating, and Golf. The Cologne Bid included all 22 core sports and 8 selected additional sports: Beach Volleyball, Billiards, Chess, Climbing, Dancing, Handball, Inline Skating, and Table Tennis.
The Paris bid would seem to be a startling surprise given France’s strong rowing federation and the number of rowing clubs around Paris. Unfortunately, the practical realities of rowing regattas for the Paris environs are limited. There are only so many regattas allotted to various rowing clubs and only one regatta is permitted on the Seine each year. The new Olympic rowing facility just outside of Paris, which is currently under construction, will still not be available in 2010. The Paris bid included 21 out of the 22 core sports and only 6 of the available 8 spots for additional sports: Dancing, Handball, Rugby, Sailing, Synchronized Swimming, and Table Tennis.
The Johannesburg bid is a huge disappointment because the rowing facilities, although a fair distance from the Johannesburg City Centre, are tremendous, located on a large lake with plenty of space for practice and long rows. Given the historically repressive culture in South Africa, it is understandable that there is not an immediate, visible gay/lesbian rowing community to support a regatta. However, regatta organization and execution has almost nothing to do with sexual orientation and almost everything to do with effective planning and support. The Johannesburg bid included all 22 core sports and only 3 of the available 8 spots for additional sports: Beach Volleyball, Field Hockey, and Rugby.
Given the GLRF active involvement in the Federation of Gay Games since 2000, and the lack of significant other organizational sports representatives for many of the core and additional sports (Badminton, Basketball, Cycling, Golf, Ice Hockey, Physique, Powerlifting, Softball, Squash, Track and Field, Triathlon, Volleyball, Dancing, handball, Rugby, Sailing, Inline Skating, and Table Tennis), it seems odd and perhaps furtive that rowing was not an automatic choice for an additional sport in each of the bids. If there does indeed exist an invisible hand of influence, it remains invisible. Both the Paris and Johannesburg bids have open spots for adding additional sports, and the hosts of the Chicago Gay Games have subsequently added several more sports to the initial 30 sport limit. So the current bids do not preclude an eventual rowing presence at the 2010 Gay Games. The decision to select the 2010 host will take place at the 2005 annual meeting of the Federation of Gay Games in Chicago.
Editor’s note: All rowers are encouraged to register with GLRF so that the world sports bodies can better understand the size and scope of the worldwide gay and lesbian rowing community. Registration is free and takes but a few minutes. All rowers are invited to engage in a discussion on the future of rowing at the Gay Games and the exploration of an independent, worldwide gay and lesbian regatta, to be held quadrennially. Finally, ROW in 2006, in Chicago and/or Montreal. Let’s show the world the true size of a gay and lesbian regatta.
Meandering through the city center of Melbourne, the Yarra River provided the aquatic landscape for the inaugural Melbourne Argonauts Queer Rowing Club Midsumma Festival Regatta on Sunday 13 February 2005. Organized to coincide with the Midsumma Gay and Lesbian Festival, the event drew two hundred and eighty oarsmen and oarswomen from 14 Rowing Clubs in the Australian state of Victoria.
Crews converged along the banks of the Yarra as boats launched from the Alexandria Gardens adjacent to the Midsumma Festival. With a perfectly clear, sunny, 25 degree day, the races provided a wonderful show for the 50,000 strong crowd attending Carnival Day, the traditional closing of the Midsumma Festival.
The event lasted six and a half hours to accommodate 104 races. The Melbourne Argonauts, a gay and lesbian rowing club based out of the Lord Somers Powerhouse, featured well in their events, winning by healthy margins the Male Novice Eight, the Male Beginner Four and the Female Masters Four (in composite with the Alan Mitchell Club). The Argonauts came a close second to Richmond Rowing Club in the Female Open Eight, losing by approximately 10 centimetres in what was an exciting neck and neck struggle from start to finish.
The first, second and third place winners were treated with specially struck medallions imprinted with the Melbourne Argonaut logo and a black and purple fashioning of the seven-pointed star of Australia. Around the edges were the words Pride, Equality, Participation, and Community which are the guiding tenets of the club. Naturally, the purple ribbon medallions were the talk of the river bank and immediately became THE hotly contested item for every event.
Amongst the competitors was former world champion sculler and FISA Thomas Keller Award winner Peter Antonie. He raced with the Melbourne University Boat Club, who won the Male Open Eight event in a closely fought contest with their boatshed neighbours, the Banks Rowing Club.
Once their races were over, many of the competitors took the opportunity to mingle with the festival crowd in the gardens next to the course.
The Argonaut rowers will now turn their focus to the 2006 World Outgames in Montreal where approximately 30 of its members look forward to testing their skills against the global gay and lesbian rowing community.
Following a news story about GLRF on the Italian Rowing Federation website, the first Italian rower registered with GLRF.
The first registrant is listed as an elite rower. It is truly wonderful to see the Italian Rowing Federation take an objective and independent stance by listing news about GLRF and adding GLRF to their international links page.
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